Dorothee von Rechenberg www.dorothee-von-rechenberg.ch

Dorothee von Rechenberg
www.dorothee-von-rechenberg.ch
[email protected]
© Dorothee von Rechenberg
les couleurs de la nuit, 2015
„« Arrêts sur image issus de films, les photographies de Dorothee von Rechenberg sont empreintes d’une atmosphère intense. En fragmentant, puis en réassemblant les séquences, la photographe crée un nouveau récit et joue avec les
codes de lecture, ainsi que la mémoire cinématographique. Véritable travail de
précision, elle manie également avec soin la spatialité photographique. »
Bernadette Hauert (Trad. Noémie Richard)
from the series „les couleurs de da nuit“, 2015, 86,5 x 112 cm
from the series „les couleurs de da nuit“, 2015, 86,5 x 112 cm
from the series „les couleurs de da nuit“, 2015, 86,5 x 112 cm
from the series „les couleurs de da nuit“, 2015, 86,5 x 112 cm
windows # 1, Installationview „double view“ Forum Vebikus, Schaffhausen 2013 (backlitfolie)
windows # 2, Installationview projectroom M54, regionale 14, Basel 2013 (backlitfolie)
Photonstallallation„à table“ 2012/13, basement OSLO 10, 133 x 485 cm, 66 parts
„à table“
Continuing my perennial work with film material, my focus within this group of works is directed
towards a recurring topos in film: the gathering of people around a table.
Here the table is centre, stage and platform for a broad bandwith of human interactions.
At the table people might have discussions and debates, they might indulge in food and drink,
they might smoke and exchange ideas or remain silent.
The table provides a space for arguments, approches and attentive sympathy or utter boredom,
bleakness and loneliness.
The excerpts for this work are chosen in such a way that only the gestures and the language of
hands tell the possible meaning behind the stories.
from the series „à table“ 28,8 x 19,3 cm
from the series „à table“ 28,8 x 19,3 cm
from the series „à table“ 28,8 x 19,3 cm
From the series ‚scenes‘
In the last few years, Dorothee von Rechenberg has focused primarily on black and white
The windows in Dorothee von Rechenberg’s images are not the frame for a view into the
photography. She is composing her photographs within series (e.g. recut, 2009, insomnia,
picture any more; here they are becoming blind mirrors, refusing any mirrored image on their
2008, songline, 2007). This working method obviously has a strong relationship to the aesthe-
surface but throwing it back. While ‘reflecting’ the view, they are blinding the spectator with
tic and narrative principles of film; by grouping situations in a line, she evokes the narration of
their brilliance and confusing his gaze and mind.
a story or the spatial relation of objects and characters. However, the way of ‘story-telling’ in
the images of Dorothee von Rechenberg is very different from that of traditional films.
With her method of several photographic layers, the artist is constructing a crystalline space
remote from traditionally depicted rooms. Only in some of its parts can we recognize every-
Since 2010, Rechenberg has been working on her series scenes based on the technique of
day situations and characters; however, the field for their actions is rather small and limited.
digital montage. As source material she is using old movies which she photographs during
They do not come into contact with each other or with the outside world. Turned away from
a DVD projection.
the spectator, they stare at non-existent sights, being rather shadows with their blurred faces
or figures, moving in suites that lead nowhere. They seem to be captured in the layered
She explains:“I take the photos while watching a projected film. This is an essential part of my
montages.
photographs: to capture specific moments while the film is running (absolutely not a screenshot!). I want to fix a moment of movement (in a physical and also psychological sense) and to
The photographic layers are constantly referring to their artistic construction, to their being-
show the movement even in this frozen moment. Afterwards I create
an-image. Nevertheless, the spectators feel compelled to try to put themselves mentally into
absolutely new settings with my footage on my computer. Therefore I use a lot of different
the large-sized pictures and get involved in their spatial construction. However, unlike the
photographs (sometimes only a single detail of them) to compose my scenes. The photo-
depicted characters, the spectator is not becoming a prisoner captured in the image. His
graphs I use for the compositions need not only come from one specific film but from various
process of viewing is an on-going process, evoking the history of black and white film, stars
other films. What is important is the interaction between the different parts which thus
of the cinema or moments of a special scene, as well as personal memory of social constella-
become a new whole.
tions or rooms experienced in childhood.
Rechenberg is putting these photos into new arrangements and combinations, rarely also em-
However, all of these fragments of memories are not constructing any linear story. As the
ploying elements from her own photographs. She is alluding to the atmosphere of old films
labyrinth of spaces appearing in the process of perceiving and leading nowhere, the idea of
both in her motives and in the black and white visual style (even though some of the source
following a story ends up in the same way. Layer upon layer of semi-transparent surfaces
films are colour films).
form a dense weave that both hints and hides. The oscillating, dreamlike interiors suggest
a threshold between various temporal, spatial and mental levels. Like traditional film, the
The captured old-fashioned objects, furniture and persons evoke a sense of nostalgia. Most
series scenes has the quality of a dramatic narrative. However, at its end, there is neither any
of the persons are depicted from behind. In this way, the figures in scenes are becoming
cadaver nor any loving couple. Dorothee von Rechenberg is much more familiar with the
something like a representative for the spectator, seducing him to enter the visual world of
aesthetics of deconstructivism, transferring its philosophical and literal principles into the
the images and to follow a hallway, a staircase or their view out of a window. In doing so, the
imaginative and magical power of images, initiating an on-going circulation of perception
spectator is arriving in a ‘nowhere land’, highlighted by zones of bright light, or is glittering
and interpretation, in which symbols and meanings are shifting their position and changing
onto a darkened ground and shadowed areas. The spectator is unable to find any visual sign
their content continually. The only sure point of reference is the spectator in front of the
to fix his viewpoint, like he can do in classically constructed perspectives. The window the
image in his or her here and now.
woman in scene 8 or the man in scene 7 is looking through is in a way re-inversing the view
on its starting point: the viewer.
Andrea Domesle
‘fotograf’ / #19 / 2012/ /film/
from the series „scenes“ 2010/2011, 112 x 165 cm
Installationview basement, OSLO 10 scene # 1, 2011, 112 x 165 cm, scene # 18, 2012, 245 x 315 cm (wallpaper), 2011/2012, 212 x 320 cm
seascape, 2014, Installationview basement OSLO 10, 150 x 220 cm
from the series „recut“ 2010, 112 x 150 cm
from the series GÖTEBORG, 2007, 117 x 135 cm
from the series „songline“, 2008, 54 x 66 cm
from the series „sing along“, 2005
landing 2009, 120 x 220 cm
artists‘ window, dock: actuel Art from Basel
“landing” is a black and white photo which, printed upon a opaque and sticky foil, covers an
TIn spite of this inversion, a close interaction, not only in terms of colour, develops between the
entire window of the“ dock: aktuelle Kunst aus Basel“
building and the suggested outlook because the building cuts into the spherical object and
thereby creates the impression that the object is actually rolling into the building.
I wanted to create an unexpected and new spatial dimension which, by reversing the direction
The dimension of the spherical object can be interpreted as a metaphor for the ‚Dokustelle‘
of view instead of towards the ‚Dokustelle‘, away from it. It opens up into a deep scenic plane
which on the one hand functions as a steadily growing collection point of creative process and
where a big undefinable object has ‘landed’ on its foreground.
on the other hand tries to connect this concentration to the outside world.
Dorothee von Rechenberg
*1947 Horb/G, lives and works since 1989 in Basel/CH
www.dorothee-von-rechenberg.ch
[email protected]
2008
Shows I projects I a selection
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
> Gallery Monika Wertheimer, Basel/Oberwil CH (solo show)
> ATELIERS OUVERTS, 16. Edition, Accelerateur de Particules, Manufacture,
Mulhouse, FR (group show)
> ERNTE, Purchases collection Kanton Baselland, Kunsthalle Palazzo, Liestal, CH,
> L’INCONSCIO POSSIBILE:PARALLELISIME IN MOVIMENTO NELL’ARTE
FOTOGRAFICA/ The potential of the unconscious: moving parallels in
photographic art, MACT/CACT, Bellinzona, CH (group show)
> Gallery Apteka Sztuki, Warsaw, P, (solo show)
> Schwarz, Bellevue, Space for Photography, Basel (group show)
> Photobastei, Zürich, (group show)
> basement OSLO 10, Basel (solo show)
> BERLINER LISTE / DAS ESSZIMMER, Bonn (with Magdalena Gerber)
> IL CORPO SOLITARIO. L'AUTOSCATTO NELLA FOTOGRAFIA, CACT/MACT ,
Bellinzona, CH (group show)
> Double View, Forum Vebikus, Schaffhausen, CH (with Monika Rechsteiner)
> à table, DAS ESSZIMMER, Bonn, G (solo show)
> invited competition for „Kunst und Bau“ by kulturelles.bl./ESB, Liestal, CH
> Stadt(t)räume, a projekt by http://project.supe.ch/, Basel, CH (group show)
> regionale13, Kunsthaus Baselland, share for„a word for a play“,
a project from Franziska Glozer and Sarah Bernauer, CH (group show)
> regionale 12, Kunstverein Freiburg/Brsg. CH (group show)
> scenes, Raum für Kunst und Literatur, Basel, CH (solo show)
> le 1er Dimanche, Maison Turberg, Porrentruy, CH (group show)
> Kompetenzverschiebung/Déplacement de Compétences,
Accélerateur de Particules, Strasbourg, FRAC Alsace, Sélestat,
Kunsthalle Palazzo, Liestal, CH/F (group show)
> regionale 11, Kunsthalle Palazzo, Liestal, CH (group show)
> le 1er Dimanche, Maison Turberg, Porrentruy, CH (group show)
/Déplacement de Compétences, Accélerateur de Particules, Strasbourg, FRAC
Alsace, Sélestat, Kunsthalle Palazzo, Liestal, CH/F (group show)
> regionale 11, Kunsthalle Palazzo, Liestal, CH (group show)
> le 1er Dimanche, Maison Turberg, Porrentruy, CH (group show)
> regionale 10, Projektraum M54, Basel, CH (group show)
> Gewürzmühle, Basel, CH (group show)
> artists’ window dock: aktuelle Kunst aus Basel, CH (solo show)
2007
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
> regionale 9, Stapflehus Weil a.Rh. G (group show)
> MEMBRAN, multimediale Installation, Basel, CH (group show/pr)
> FIRST FLUSH, mitart-gallery, Basel, CH (mit Kassandra Becker)
> ERNTE, , Purchases collection Kanton Baselland, Kunsthalle Palazzo, Liestal, CH
> magic moments, regionale 8, Kunsthalle Palazzo, Liestal, CH (group show)
> invited competition for „Kunst und Bau“ by Hoffmann-La Roche, Basel, CH
> transgresiòn, multimediale Installation, KulturForumLaufen, CH (group show)
> Strange Strolls, „Snow“, Audio-Projekt in Fremantle, Australia (Pr)
> Kohinoor Gallery, Karlsruhe, G (mit Renata Borer)
> regionale 5, Projektraum M54, Basel, CH (group show)
> www.schrebern.ch, ein Projekt von Verena Lafargue, Biel,CH (Gr-Pr)
> alpiner Ruheraum, Audio-Projekt in Seegrube/Innsbruck, A (Gr-Pr)
> Tausendschönchen & Co, Pavillon in Ostfildern, G (solo-Pr)
> Supermarket, Liste 02, YoungFairArt, Kaskadenkondensator, Basel,CH (gr)
> Männertreu & Ehrenpreis, MUSEUM CHASA JAURA, Valchava, CH (s-pr)
> pacte floral, KunstRaumRiehen (BS, CH) (mit Ruth Handschin)
Collections:
2014
2011
2009
2007
2000
1997
1996
1993
Art Collection of Baselland, CH
Art Collection City of Freiburg/Brsg, G
Art Collection Hoffmann-La Roche, Basel CH
Art Collection of Baselland, CH
Art Collection of Baselland, CH
Art Collection of Basel-City, CH
Art Collection of Baselland, CH
Art Collection of Basel-City, CH
Collection of bills, Design Museum, Basel-City, CH („PALAVER I + II“)
Publications/Catalogues/Articles
2013
à table, DAS ESSZIMMER, Bonn
2012
fotograf / #19 / 2012/ /film/ czech. magazine for photography
2001/02 Kunstbulletin 6 + 7/8
2001
ASIAN ART: Ten Views of a Rock
2000
pacte floral (with Audio CD)
2000
ORTlos – Spielräume des Reisens, Journal GSBK
1996
TÄUSCHUNGEN, GSBK
1990
DREHPUNKT, die Schweizer Literaturzeitschrift, drawings

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